Kind Hearts and Coronets

There are things in your life that you can change and you cannot, family is one of those things that you are stuck with for the rest of your life. I feel a review of "Kind Hearts and Coronets" is appropriate today.

 

The film is set in England about a Duke who has received his comeuppance only by murdering his way to the title. The story starts in prison where the Duke Louis Mazzini (Dennis Price) who is to be hanged the day before writes his memoirs and tells the story of his rapid rise and quick fall from grace.  His mother (Audrey Fildes) was disowned by her family the aristocratic D'Ascoynes after eloping with an Italian Opera singer.

His father unfortunately dies after his birth and his mother's appeal to return to the fold was rejected by the family. His hopeful loving mother dreams that someday that her only son might inherit the title but dies sooner than expected. The family declined his mother's last wish to be buried in the family crypt which proved to be the last straw, his only solution now is to take the title by force through the murder of all the remaining D'Ascoyne's.

 Price was able to portray a mild mannered sophisticated man able to mask the hidden monster inside himself, this is the reason why no one was able to suspect the rather unusual escalating deaths of the D'Ascoyne clan. His uncle Lord Ascoyne D'Ascoyne (Alec Guinness) takes pity and gives him a job at the family bank, this triggers his plans and sets in motion the murder of the D'Ascoyne's which will give him the title in succession. I'm sure if this film was made today it would have been more macabre and disturbing, but the big difference of the "Ealing Comedies" from all others is the class and humor they inject in the plot and the characters.

It was Dennis Price who may have gotten the top billing but it was obviously the Alec Guinness show. His portrayal of the 9 characters including the female member of the family in Lady Agatha D'Ascoyne was nothing short of brilliant. The difference between Peter Sellers, Eddie Murphy and others who have done similar roles of portraying different characters on one film was they were all asking for laughs while Guinness did not. Yes this was a black comedy but Guinness was portraying real characters that the director Robert Hamer was trying to introduce to the audience. The Guinness impersonations were so good I actually learned to hate and sympathize with each of the D'Ascoynes that Mazzini methodically murdered because he was a nobody and everybody at the same time. I loved it when he pushed the Young Ascoyne D'Ascoyne's boat over a weir but I also hoped that he would have changed his mind in murdering nice guy Henry D'Ascoyne.

The great thing about the film was it showed the story through the eyes of the monster Mazzini, yes we sympathized with him but he was still the murderer we were rooting for blurring the difference between good and evil.  It was also ironic that in the later part of the film that Mazzini would be convicted of murdering his rival, someone he did not actually kill because his woman Sibella (Joan Greenwood) hid the suicide note meant to show his innocence. **SPOILER ALERT**The twist of fortune and fate is cruel and sometimes humorous as he was suddenly proclaimed innocent when the note was "found", now he was free to live the life he dreamed of and love his cousin's widow Edith (Valerie Hobson) but he mistakenly leaves the confession he wrote in his prison cell.

You forgot your confession pal. 

To sum up this is probably one of the best Ealing Comedies ever made and without the aide of special effects Alec Guinness' performance in this film became legendary. This was also cleverly written and told through the eyes of the would be protagonist, the man who tried to avenge his mother and himself but instead became a monster. It's safe to say that what this film is trying to say to the audience, you really can't choose your family because fate chooses and kills them for you.


Grade: A+

Lolita

 A completely different movie from the novel, "Lolita" incited outrage back in it's heyday when censorship was up the butt of filmmakers in Hollywood. This was in the early 60's, near the end of the studio era and "New Hollywood" would not revolutionize the industry until the late 60's.  Stanley Kubrick would be one of the few directors who would try to break the convention but do it in his own way. This controversial film was made after the success of "Spartacus", from what I heard Kubrick was in the process of filming "One Eyed Jacks" but backed out possibly because of the difficulty working with the star of the film Marlon Brando.

I thought it would have been interesting for Kubrick to try his hand on a western but "Lolita" was a better choice if he did not proceed with the other.

The film is set in the 50's told through the eyes of a middle aged man named Humbert Humbert barging in on a big house waving his pistol, his rage is directed at a man named Quilty (Peter Sellers) whom he shoots to avenge himself and the love he lost. 

The film then travels back 4 years earlier in Ramsdale, New Hampshire where Humbert arrives intending to spend the summer before his professorship at Beardsley College.  He finds a room for rent and meets an overbearing sexually frustrated widow named Charlotte Haze (Shelley Winters), he found the house unappealing but soon changed his mind after meeting Charlotte's daughter Dolores (Sue Lyon) affectionately called Lolita.

He sees her sunbathing in the garden listening to her radio and sipping on a soda pop, he immediately falls for Lolita and accepts the offer to become a lodger get close to her. Humbert is not so much portrayed as a sleazy pedophile, what Kubrick does is make his desire look  acceptable to the audience. Humbert's desire for the young "nymphet" is not explained unlike in the book, this film instead jumps right into Humbert's desire.

Sue Lyon''s performance was subtle but she's able to let her inner devil loose in playing the childish vixen in certain scenes if needed, Shelley Winter's is  as good as ever in playing the tragic suffering widow echoing her other great performances in films like "The Night of the Hunter" and  "The Diary of Anne Frank". The key character of course was Quilty played by Peter Sellers who was magnificent making the most of his limited screen time, he was able to change his character into every scene he was in like a chameleon.

You could see Sellers dissapear in the role of Quilty, the curious cop and the pushy Dr. Zempf who was the shadowy presence stalking Humbert and Lolita and he completely stole the show from Mason in most scenes particularly the Dr. Zempf encounter which I thought was electrifying. Kubrick made the struggle between 2 pedophiles for the control of a not so innocent little girl  look like a fairy tale, being the maestro of breaking the conventions of film making he was able to make us think of it as the battle between good and evil but the film itself were full of monsters even Lolita who seemed to relish the perverse circumstances her life has taken.

The moral values of the time was also challenged by the director, it seemed almost perfectly acceptable for Lolita to end up with Humbert when he visits her and we end up feeling sorry for him after she refuses his offer to run away with him. The great thing about Kubrick is he is able to focus his films on monsters like Humbert and makes us sympathize with them, the tragedy of Humbert is not knowing what's right or wrong but falling in love in the wrong circumstances.

I once read that Lolita was the one true love story of the 20th century, a man going through all hardships and heartaches to be with a girl whom he cannot be with is not only disturbing but also fascinating.

 Grade: A-

The Great Silence (Il Grande Silenzio)

The Western is one of my favorite film genres that I watch often, like classic Film Noirs probably the reason why I love them is because it is near extinction compared to the sci fi adventure and horror films that are still being made today. 
The Spaghetti Western is the sub genre of the Westerns made by Italians and Europeans that has a distinctive style compared to the classic Classic Westerns that influenced it.

One of the Spaghetti Westerns that I am a fan of is Sergio Corbucci's "The Great Silence", widely considered as the director's masterpiece along with "Django" that was released 3 years earlier.
The story is set in 1898 at the snowbound territory of Utah, a group of stragglers labeled as criminals are on the run from bounty hunters who have come to kill them and collect their reward. A mute vigilante named Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is hired to defend the stragglers from the bounty hunters, Silence is a skilled gunman who has a bizarre moral code that he follows vigorously.

He can only kill a man if he is defending himself which is the reason he provokes his target before shooting them or blowing their thumbs off which he justifies as self defense. The reason for Silence's motivation is rooted in his childhood when his parents were murdered by bounty hunters, since he was the only one left alive the hunters decided to cut his neck that damaged his vocal chords thus making him a mute. He rides in a stagecoach to Snow Hill, a secluded town high above the mountains that led to a clandestine encounter with Sheriff Burnett (Frank Wolff), the man tasked by the Governor of the territory to maintain peace and the psychotic and greedy bounty hunter Loco (Klaus Kinski) who disturbingly collects bodies of people he kills hidden in the snow.

Silence's reputation has grown tremendously as he is now known and recognized by bounty hunters, he kills Loco's partner Charlie in retaliation for killing a wanted man in front of his mother. Now he is off to Snow Hill this time to track down and kill Loco for killing a black man, the man's wife Pauline offers $1000 to kill Loco but does not have the money to pay him. She goes to the local banker Pollicutt (Luigi Pistilli) to sell her land but the corrupt banker also wants her body as part of the payment and she refuses.

It is interesting to note that the moral subtext and the political motifs were present and obvious in the film, the bounty hunters deem themselves on the side of right while the Mormons looked more like the oppressed people representing the poor during that age. The hysteria caused by the bounty hunters are mistakenly attributed to the Mormons who were trying to live a decent life in the wilderness without being hunted down like animals. The banker Pollicutt is a representation of the corrupt capitalist society that dictates the laws that the lesser people follow, while Silence who is a vigilante is the symbol of the revolution trying to fight the capitalist and corrupt system of that age.

Loco on the other hand is the symbol of anarchy that is caused by the changing times, his no nonsense approach of killing people and collecting bounty which he considers strictly business challenges the morality and the laws that were often blurred in the wilderness and solitude of the wild west. **SPOILER ALERT**


All of the buildup and sequences on the film lead to the grand finale where all sympathetic characters lose their lives at the end. No one was spared from Loco and his Bounty Hunter's onslaught who massacred the stragglers inside the bar after killing Silence which was heartbreaking. Corbucci could not have made a brilliant but remorseless film, I also thought all of the performances were great, Silence played by Jean-Louis Trintignant echoed The Man with no Name "persona but with more heart and humanity.

Frank Wolff who played the Sheriff reminded me of Rev. Capt. Samuel Johnston Clayton in "The Searchers" who was played brilliantly another great actor Ward Bond. 
Vonetta Mcgee was stunning as the suffering widow who offered herself to Silence and Luigi Pistilli  playing the sleazy Pollicutt.
But all of remaining praises should be reserved to the great Klaus Kinski who played Loco, he was able to play the part subtly while underplaying the menace of the lethal bounty hunter.

His portrayal of Loco showed unusual control and restraint while remaining psychotic and dangerous showing the audience his efficiency not only as a ruthless killer but a mastermind capable of forming an alliance strong enough to eliminate anyone standing in his way. The Sheriff made the fatal mistake of letting his guard down allowing Loco to take him by surprise with his back turned, one of the brilliant scenes of the film that only a man like Loco can find amusing. A lot of people may not be familiar with Corbucci because he was eclipsed by the more popular Sergio Leone, but the difference of Corbucci from Leone is with his keen eye to brutality and violence which echoes a style similar to Sam Peckinpah. His west is unlike any other, full of ruthless characters devoid of remorse or pity and with this style he was able to craft a masterpiece that is still being watched today. "The Great Silence" with it's breathtaking cinematography aided by the haunting score of Ennio Morricone is an authentic spaghetti western classic.

Grade: A+

Smultronstället (Wild Strawberries)

I have never been a fan of symbolisms in movies, in fact it irritates me when simple gestures and acts are instead translated to metaphors and given deeper meanings than they should be. But I guess its not for other people but for some films it might actually work. "Smultronstället (Wild Strawberries)" is one of those films that deals with sentimentality and the coming end of a person's life. I'm not much of fan of Ingmar Bergman but that changed when I saw this film.

It tells the story Eberhard Isak Borg (Victor Sjöström), a physician who is about to receive a honorary degree from Lund University after 50 years. He dreams of  walking on a deserted street, he notices a clock missing a hand and a horse carrying a hearse crossing his path but it crashes the coffin inside revealing himself as the dead body.

Isak wakes up and immediately packs his things to take a road trip and informs his long suffering maid Agda (Jullan Kindahl) and is accompanied by his daughter-in-law Marianne (Ingrid Thulin). The reason is made clear why Marianne is living with him,she is having problems with his son who is a mirror of himself. She also reminds him of the loan his son owed to him that's why she is alone most of the time because her husband had to work full time to repay the debt. Marianne knew what the audience didn't know, Isak in her own words is "ruthless" and "selfish" which means that he is a total jerk to most people he knows.

They pass by an old house by the woods where he used to spend his summers with his family, here we are transported in another time showing the family that he once had and the household he grew up in. Here we see the first glimpse of his cousin Sara (Bibi Andersson), the woman he loved who is also  attracted to his brother Sigfrid. He kisses her while picking the Wild Strawberries on the ground, we see that even though they were "engaged" she implies that Isak is too tame for her and she is clearly more attracted to the audacious Sigfrid.

He then meets a young girl also named Sara (played by the same actress) accompanied by 2 young men fighting for her affection. It is implied that the 2 boys fighting over the younger Sara is a sort of symbolism, a raging emotion that Isak feels against his brother over his cousin Sara as he now remembers.
As they went along the trip they almost collided with a BV Bug driven by a director and his wife, no one was harmed but the car was badly damaged. Since there was no other way to fix the BV, they invited the couple ride to ride with them.
The 2 bickering couple this time represents the relationship that Marianne has with Isak's son Evald (Gunnar Björnstrand) who does not want to have a child with her to avoid responsibility.

The film is basically archetypal Bergman full of symbolisms and strange out of body dreams and sequences that explains the characters history. This film's journey provides answers to every riddle of the characters mental state and being that it clearly shows why this seemingly harmless old man is despised by everyone even by his own wife who cheated on him years ago. It is implied that he was trying to make amends at the end of the film, trying talk some sense to his son who clearly hates him.

The purpose of this is to show that it is not too late to change things even if we are at the end of the road in our lives. Bergman did made us see that Isak was a decent man despite his coldness when he was greeted warmly by the gas station attendant (Max von Sydow) but his only flaw was he did not show love to the people he cared most about. The simplicity of the story makes it all the more melancholic because Isak cannot change what has happened in his life anymore even if it looks like the flashbacks are within his reach. He's only watching it but not reliving the past, his only hope is to change for the present to make the most of his remaining life.

Grade: A+

King Boxer aka Five Fingers of Death

"King Boxer aka Five Fingers of Death" is the film that spawned the Kung Fu craze in the 70's before being overshadowed by "Enter the Dragon" that starred the legendary Bruce Lee. It starred one of Hong Kong's most famous actors Lo Lieh and Tse Ling-ling. I'm not really familiar with Kung Fu films and I know so little about them but I do remember watching some of them when I was younger. The film that I remember the most is "The 36th Chamber of Shaolin" which left a strong impression on me.

Now the equally influential "King Boxer" has  been given its due after years of being a cult favorite, I guess this is one of the coolest Kung Fu Films I have seen in a long time. I can honestly say I enjoyed it more than Bruce Lee's films because it is not a perfect film that everyone expected.

The film is about a martial arts student named Chi-Hao (Lo Lie) under the tutelage of a Kung Fu Master Sung Wu-Yang who is already past his prime. To realize his full potential the Master sends Chi-Hao to a superior Master named Shen Chin-Pei and bids goodbye to his girl Yin-Yin (Tse Ling-ling). Along the way he meets a young female singer named Meng Tien-Hsiun who falls in love with him after saving her from the same thugs that attacked his master.

Upon arriving in the school he gets a tryout but was beaten by Chin-Pei's star pupil Han Lung, Chin-Pei informs Chi-Hao that he needs to start from the bottom to even be considered for training.

He performs simple tasks like cleaning the house until the day came when the master finally deemed him worthy for training.
Meanwhile martial arts tyrant Ming Dung-Shun sends Chen Lang to start trouble at the school, he proceeds to beat the members of the school even Han Lung. Only Chin-Pei was able to defeat the challenger but Chen Lang through trickery was able to injure Chin-Pei. Chi-Hao seeing no other choice to stop Ming Dung-Shun  goes to the bar alone where Chen Lang and Ming Dung-Shun's son was staying.

He manages to beat Chen Lang singlehandedly and gains the respect of his master, Chin-Pein in return chooses him as his successor to learn and master "The Iron Fist" to win the Martial Arts tournament and defeat Ming Dung-Shun's school.

The film is full of mistakes, I thought the script was poorly written and the dubbing was one of the worst I have seen. There are times when the sound of the film is out of sync and the dialogue that the characters are saying may not even be correct. Some of the scenes were unintentionally funny, I immediately cracked up when Chi-Hao received the training manual for "The Iron Fist" technique instead of the grueling training we should expect from our hero. It is of course full of Kung Fu movie cliche's like the outcast hero able to redeem himself, the fading Kung Fu masters who are in need of successors, the jealous rival who wants to be the hero and the rival Martial Arts school out to challenge the competition.

The costumes also did not look good on some of the characters most notably on the two japanese fighters that wore a bad wig and also Chen Lang.
I can go on about the flaws of the film but what's good about it is the fighting choreography and the violence that ensues. The film reminds me of American Westerns but the only problem is this film's bad points makes it good.
The ass kicking alone is worth your time especially the final showdown between our hero and the Japanese fighter who was clearly modeled after the great Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune.

The director Chang-Hwa Jeong was able to explore the story quickly while jumping to the action packed fighting scenes without hesitation. This film is can best be described by using Quentin Tarantino's own words as an "ass kicking nirvana" film worth watching.

Grade: A-

Umberto D.

Out of the ashes of post World War II Italy, Neorealism became a tyle of film from which the poor and the working class are depicted with more sense and clarity.

Unlike the glamorous Hollywood films of the post World War, Neoralist films became a combination of films and documentaries giving us a view of the harsh living conditions of people devastated after the war.

One of the great films of that era is Vittorio De Sica's "Umberto D."
The film is about an old man named Umberto Domenico Ferrari (Carlo Battisti), an old civil servant who seemed to have lost his place  in society and is in the brink of poverty.

He's retired and on a pension but it is not enough to pay for his furnished apartment kept by his greedy landlady who is bent on kicking him out on the street. He has a few acquaintances as seen on the beginning of the film, men his age whose problems mirror his own frustration of receiving a low pension. But his only real friends are the helpless maid (Maria-Pia Casilio) who got pregnant by one of the soldiers she was having relations with and his faithful dog Flike whom he loves the most. The film is without pretensions and is one of the few films that I have seen which is completely in touch with reality. De Sica who was said to have been born to poverty himself was able to emphasize the importance of basic everyday needs of a person, for this film a simple home is what Umberto needs to spend the remainder of his life. He is not really helpless, it is a fact that we admire his tenacity against almost hopeless odds.

His fear of losing his home forces him to sell some of his own belongings and even to beg on the street using his dog to avoid the embarrassment while he hides nearby. But still given his desperation Umberto still considers the dog his most beloved companion and he will not let Flike get embarrassed this way.

This old man Umberto who would do almost anything to keep his home and his self respect would treat Flike like his own son, he would not even let Flike live with a bunch of measley dogs to ease his troubles. De Sica was able to show hope coming from an old man who is facing almost impossible odds, this is the beauty of this film given the somber tone and heartbreaking moments. A film that is impossible not to love.


Grade: A+

His Girl Friday

One of the films that probably defines the screwball genre, some would argue that "His Girl Friday" is director Howard Hawks' best. The film was based on a Broadway play titled "The Front Page" that soon became a film in 1931, the film was directed by Lewis Milestone and produced by billionaire industrialist Howard Hughes. The film was remade again in 1940 but major changes were made particularly the gender of one of the central characters, though I have never seen "The Front Page" it turns out the original character or Hildy Johnson was really a man. A major trademark for Hawks films were independent and strong willed women and I guess Hawks wanted a woman character on the film who would be able to go toe to toe with the character of Walter. So Hildebrand is out and Hildegard is in.

Cary finds the hat funny.

The story begins when Walter Burns (Cary Grant) the editor of The Morning Post learns that his ex wife and former star reporter Hildegard "Hildy" Johnson (Rosalind Russell) was about to marry insurance man Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy).

Walter owes Hildy money but he makes every excuse to sabotage their plans even going as so far as to have Bruce arrested and even have Hildy's soon to be mother-in-law kidnapped by a thug that Walter employs, enter convicted murderer Earl Williams (John Qualen) who manages to escape his execution and his story becomes the hottest news in town.

Walter asks Hildy for one last favor to cover the story for the paper and she agrees, with luck the bumbling Earl who is proclaiming his innocence manages to slip by authorities and ends up on the newsroom where Hildy was staying to cover the story along with other reporters. She manages to hide Earl on a desk cabinet while the other reporters were away and informs Walter of the situation. This series of events are only made worse when crooked Mayor Fred (Clarence Kolb)  intercepts a pardon given by the governor to Earl to give him enough publicity for his upcoming reelection.
This film brilliantly directed by Hawks combines the usual characteristics of the screwball genre like word gags, sexual innuendos and farcical situations. But the film maybe best remembered for it's breakneck speed of overlapping dialogue, I couldn't remember any other film this entertaining with characters not being able to finish the dialogue they were saying because they were all too busy trying to out talk each other.

Cary Grant of course was brilliant,  his hard boiled cynical ruthless portrayal of Walter is probably one of the best performances in his career. Here Cary is his usual charming self but more devilish and cunning, his command of Hildy did not need the usual charm that he projected but he talked her into every situation like a rakish devil. What's also special about the character of Walter is he is  despicable but you still end up rooting for him because of Cary's natural wit and charisma. Rosalind Russel was also brilliant in playing the long suffering Hildy, you'd actually think she's portrayed as a weak female lead from all the abuse that she receives from Walter but her resourcefulness and efficiency proves the contrary. The film also has a great supporting cast that kept it moving from one scene to another like Walt Bellamy who plays the suffering Bruce, the group of newspaper men on the newsroom who couldn't catch a break,  the two bumbling characters of Sheriff Peter B. Hartwell (Gene Lockhart) and the messenger Joe Pettibone (Billy Gilbert) who is bribed by the crooked Mayor.

I think it was unfair that this film did not receive an Academy Award nomination unlike "The Philadelphia Story" that also starred Cary Grant, this film is certainly one of the most overlooked films of it's time but has gained a reputation since as a classic.
 

Grade: A+

Touchez Pas au Grisbi

One of the best crime films I have seen lately and also one of the most underrated, "Touchez Pas au Grisbi" is certainly up there as one of the best of the genre. I have never heard of it's director Jacques Becker or even seen his other films but Im excited to see more of his work after seeing this movie.
The story starts with Max (Jean Gabin), an aging gangster with dreams of retiring from the criminal underworld that he has lived in for so long. He is accompanied by his longtime partner in crime Riton (Rene Dary) , the vain and insecure womanizer who unlike Max doesn't' seem to be slowing down anytime soon from his gangster lifestyle.

It was not until Max showed Riton the club they were in that they should retire while they were ahead, the place was full of old timers like them already past their prime. All of them old,  outdated and looked ridiculous still living the playboy image and lifestyle they once had in their youth dancing with young showgirls old enough to be their grand daughters.  It is in this club where we meet Pierrot aka Fats (Paul Frankeur) the owner of the club and the drug dealer Angelo (Lino Ventura) who both looked equally formidable. It is also here where we meet the two showgirls Lola (Dora Doll) and Josy (Jeanne Moreau ) whom they were both dating. As Max was about to leave he stumbles upon Angelo and Josy who were all over each other. This disturbed Max because Josy is also dating his friend Riton, Josy pleads with Max not to tell Riton even to the point where she offered herself to him. The disgusted Max refuses and leaves but does not tell Riton which would be his biggest mistake.

As he returns to his apartment he soon finds out that he was tailed by two men that he manages to scare away, this is when he realized Angelo's involvement and the fatal mistake Riton made in telling Josy of the stashed golden bars that they stole years ago in an airport.

Max immediately phones Riton and informs him to leave his apartment right away, Max's suspicion is confirmed as Angelo is already at Riton's apartment with another henchman ready to pounce on the naive Riton. As Riton meets Max they make their way into a secret apartment that Max owns, he reveals the golden bars is inside an expensive automobile that Max also owned hoping to pass time and sell the bars after the heat is gone. But Max knows he doesn't have much time as he knows Angelo will do whatever is necessary to take the bars from him, it now starts as a race against time for Max to sell the golden bars to his Uncle Oscar or risk losing it to Angelo or the local authorities.

But Riton ever the reckless and naive sidekick ignores the dangers and leaves the safety of the hidden apartment and goes back to his own place only to be jumped by Angelo and his men and driven off to an undisclosed location.

Max arrives and phones Riton's place only to realize that he has finally been taken by Angelo as given away by the mumbling voice of the Bellboy.

The character of Max played brilliantly by Gabin shows age and wisdom, he knows his days living the life he's known most his life is done. Unlike the old relics surrounding him he knows that their time is over, ruthless men like Angelo are not like them who were bound by code of honor but by greed and brute force. He also shows his boundless code of loyalty to his friend as it is common for gangsters on French Crime Thrillers, he will do whatever he can to save the bumbling Riton even if it means losing the loot or his own life. Some might interpret them as having a homosexual relationship but they're really more like Father and son, Max sees himself as the only man who can take care of his friend even sharing his pajamas when they spent the night at his apartment. 

The character of Angelo meanwhile echoes the gangster Sollozzo in "The Godfather", both men challenge the moral code of the underworld. They represent the new breed of gangsters who rely on cunning and violence to get what they want, the old guard in the meantime will try to maintain order and battle the young turks who are trying to stake their claim and create their own legacy at their expense.
The central theme of the story is probably more about the mortality of men like Max who has probably seen more than their own share of heists and violence, Gabin was able to project a regal toughness and sensitivity despite his age. He's a man who can also be sensitive and charming and we often see him flirting with most of the women in the film but despite his regal and dapper demeanor his mean streak cannot be denied. He shows his dark side when he slaps the hell out of Josy who told Angelo about the golden bars, he even violently slaps the bellboy who helped Angelo in Riton's kidnapping.

Only hardened gangsters would know this kind of detail and deal with them appropriately, he slaps them like children not to hurt physically but to let them know that this will not be tolerated and the next treachery on their part will be fatal.

The coolest scene on the film is the bloody showdown on the highway, seeing
Max wielding an automatic blasting his opponents is electrifying paying homage to the classic American gangster films of the 1930's.
Becker who was an assistant of the great French Director Jean Renoir blazes the trail for future film noir, gangster, heist films to follow similar to this film. His blending of all the said genres helped breath life to French New Wave and Jean-Pierre Melville's gangster films that had similar styles and concept. Clearly a masterpiece of this genre "Touchez Pas au Grisbi" is a must see film.


Grade: A+